IRVING – Over the last five games, Tony Romo has performed like a quarterback playing for his next contract.

Romo has played much better over the second half of the season. Midway through the season, Romo led the NFL with 13 interceptions.

Over his last five games, however, Romo has 10 touchdown passes and only two interceptions. Both came on Thanksgiving Day against Washington.

Romo has completed 138-of-200 passes over his last five games for 1,587 yards. His best game of the season came Sunday night in the Cowboys’ win over Philadelphia.

Romo was a perfect 10-for-10 in the second half against the Eagles and threw three touchdown passes. It was the second time in his career that he’s been perfect passing the ball in the second half (the first was Nov. 12, 2006 at Arizona).

Romo finished Sunday with a near-perfect quarterback rating of 150.5, the best of his career and third-best in Cowboys history behind Don Meredith (154.6 vs. Philadelphia on Oct. 9, 1966) and Troy Aikman (153.7 at Atlanta on Dec. 21, 1996). He also passed Aikman to become the Cowboys’ franchise leader for career touchdown passes (168).

“He’s certainly playing very well. I thought he did an outstanding job in the game [Sunday] night. I thought he made so many good decisions,” Cowboys head coach Jason Garrett said. “He made a big conversion on third down with his feet, threw the ball short, threw the ball deep, made plays down the field in critical moments, made plays in the red zone, found the check downs, was really, really was on top of his game. I thought he saw things really well. He really wasn’t affected by the rush and just consistently made plays throughout the game. I know he did that last night and he’s been doing that a lot lately.”

What’s made Romo’s five-game stretch more impressive is he’s done it all playing behind a patchwork offensive line that’s been hit by injuries and with the NFL’s worst rushing offense.

The return of starting running back DeMarco Murray on Sunday night made a big difference, but Romo played well the previous four games with no consistent rushing threat for defenses to consider.

Also, Romo has been sacked 15 times over the last five games, but despite the heavy pressure has maintained his poise and not thrown the ball up for grabs.

Romo has passed for more than 300 yards seven times this season, with five coming over the last six games.

The Cowboys want to sign Romo to a contract extension. They reached out to his agent a few months ago, but Romo stopped negotiations so he could focus on the season.

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